Clothing might seem like quite a surface decision to make later on (almost i-mmaterial… alright, alright, no puns) and to some extent that’s true. There’s plenty else to decide on. However, it’s another one of those things that you’ll want to consider when deciding what type of people inhabit your world. Just like the places they live and what they do, clothes can tell us a lot about the people you introduce and the expectations and requirements of where they live. You need clothes to be consistent with people’s environments.

Whether it’s uniforms for the military, fashionable tunics or practical hunting leathers, clothes are an instant tip-off to someone’s career or class. They also tell us about what materials are available in the world and can be a sneaky way to slide in a few details about economics or geography (her cloak was made of that rare, violet Atrolionan silk. It must have come from across the sea).

For this prompt, please design at least two outfits: they should represent two different cultures, groups or professions and be what you’d expect to see someone wearing out in public. Be very careful when drawing on styles from real-world cultures as these can often be very important to the people of those cultures.

Note: If you’re using non-human characters and clothing isn’t really appropriate to your story, perhaps you could draw a few representatives of the species you’re focusing on and demonstrate other ways in which they express themselves or visibly show their allegiance to a particular group.

Your work needs to be original: taking something off the internet and claiming it as your own is plagiarism. Remember to keep everything HOL appropriate, adhering to all HOL rules, and please keep your submissions 600x600 pixels or smaller. Please also include a short description of your image.

You'll earn 20 beans for completing this prompt as well as it counting towards the chance to snag our shiny Ink Splatters Award.

There is no deadline as such for these prompts but if you’d like it to count towards your chance of earning the award for a specific year, we’ll need it by the end of that school year. If you’re comfortable sharing, then post below. If not, email your image and description to us via hol.bookclub @ gmail.com (without the spaces).

"Does the Walker choose the path or the path the walker?" -Garth Nix
(Av/sig by S. Elf)